


Burn

by where_am_i_am_here



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: (it's very light h/c more on the emotional side), Five is flustered, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Mute Runner Five, Non-Binary Runner Five, Other, POV Third Person, having to sign in the dark, well well well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 17:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9000742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/where_am_i_am_here/pseuds/where_am_i_am_here
Summary: Maybe Sam did find a cure for nightmares.----Takes place after 5x4, so spoiler warnings for everything up to that episode~(Merry Christmas everyone btw - even though this fic isn't christmassy at all :D)





	

There’s no sound. No indication of the stranger appearing next to Five, no sign of the knife they’re wielding at them; as if the attacker just materialized out of thin air, like a shadow, and their dark clothing is just enforcing that notion.

Five is on auto-pilot, muscles moving before they have even consciously realized what’s going on. Their breath hitches as they take a half-step to the left, turning their upper body away to dodge the weapon and get a good distance between them to face the stranger head-on. 

The side of their neck is tingling as they try to calm down their heartrate. Blood is trickling down their skin, to their collarbone, slowly soaking the collar of their white shirt. Five should know that it’s no use caring about how clean their shirt is, they should have known from the start it wouldn’t stay that brilliant white. The cut stings. 

Their attacker hasn’t moved from the spot. It’s worrying, causing Five’s mind to go into overdrive, making them question how and why and where and who – but the hoodied person before them reveals no answers. They can’t see their face. 

Five doesn’t want to let it happen but an ice-cold fear is starting to creep over them. It’ll start by immobilizing them, making them shake and tumble and lose their composure, making them frozen to the ground and an easy target. It already seems like the other person is growing bigger and bigger until their presence will suffocate Five, though neither they nor their opponent have moved towards each other. It’s already pressing on them and pushing them down by the shoulders.

Five focuses all their willpower into their arm and reaches back to their rucksack, lays their fingers around the handle of the tennis racket they have found just before.

And then Five runs the other way. 

They’re not here to fight. They’re here to keep moving forward; to find their people, to free them, to take them home. It’s the only thing on their mind. There’s no time to waste trying to fight someone. They have to run, run, run forwards.

Five concentrates on the vibration every step makes as their feet hit the ground, on the wide yellow corn fields around them, on the clear blue sky, on the birds singing, as they try to get back into the moment. They can outrun anyone. They just need to stay calm and they will be able to do it. The grip of their tennis racket is burning in their palm. 

Then the sky is gone and they’re surrounded by white nothingness and they stop running.

An arm around their throat. Not too tight – yet. Five is just too well aware of the power in those muscles, aware of the grip, and if they close their eyes they’re sure it’s not an arm but an anaconda still pondering whether it’s hungry or not, whether it’s even worth to exert their powers to eat such tiny prey. 

Five doesn’t say a word and neither does the shadow that’s caught up with them. They understand each other like that.

The stranger holds their knife to Five’s back. It doesn’t cut the fabric but Five feels the pressure right on their spine. Their heart has moved up from their chest, beating in their throat and cutting their breath.

Then the stranger starts poking them. 

Why… Why don’t they just finish it? What is this, a game? There’s no time for- But- If they focus, maybe they can take advantage of that… The arm around their neck is loose enough. They can manage that.

Five waits for the moment when the knife is off their back, in the air between the rhythmic contact it makes with their shirt, and swirls around, pushing the armed hand out of the way with the back of their own hand and bringing up their other hand to grab for the hood-

.

“Five!”, someone whispered and Five opened their eyes to darkness. It was an unexpected contrast, after all the bright white they had just been surrounded by. Their blood was rushing in their ears and if they weren’t already lying down they would have had to; they didn’t need to be able to see to realize they were dizzy.

A warm hand patting Five’s; and a voice, just as warm, and slightly hoarse. “It’s just me. It’s okay.” He barely came through the white noise that was still stuffing Five’s ears.

Right. Sam. 

Five took a deep breath. And slowly pulled their hand back. It must have been him poking their back, and his arm they pushed away in their dream. Now they worked on pushing away the faceless stranger from their mind. It hadn’t been the first time this person had come up in their dreams, and they never revealed their face. This time had been the closest to them finding out, but in actuality Five didn’t want to know anymore. They had to come back to the present.

Sam had found a new mattress today. Maxine and Paula and Steve and Five had worked together to get the communications back up. Abel was still taken. They were still sleeping in that truck, which currently functioned as the base for pretty much everything they did nowadays. Five had placed their sleeping bag in the far left upper corner, then next to them Sam, then the new mattress for Maxine and Sara and Paula. The runner had lost of track of where everyone else had found enough place to comfortably – or actually not so comfortably – sleep because Five themselves had been out of it in a matter of seconds last night, while everybody else had still just gotten ready for bed.

“It’s just me”, Sam repeated, catching Five’s attention again. “Sorry. I thought you were awake.” 

Five reached out and let their fingers walk over the ground, over to his side, feeling for Sam’s hand. They opened up his loosely curled fingers and started signing into his palm. They knew there were official systems to communicate sing language when one or both of the conversational partners couldn’t see, but Five had never learned them, so they made up their own system by determining some keywords and phrases. It wasn’t as accurate as their usual signing, but it worked alright most of the time. 

_Now I am._

“Sorry”, Sam whispered again. 

_What is it?_

“I… I thought – if you couldn’t sleep – we could talk a little. It’s been a while, don’t you think?”

He was right. They all had been quite busy these weeks. Five barely remembered the last time they could relax enough to enjoy their company, just for a bit, to talk things over, to share their thoughts. Actually, they had barely realized how much they missed it. Even if they wouldn’t say much themselves. But talk, at this time? About what? And how, considering the limited language they were using in the dark?

 _You can’t sleep?_ , Five asked instead.

“I know, it’s weird, right?” Five could hear the half-smile in his voice. “You’d think we’re doing so much all day long, we should be dead tired. I don’t know.” He paused. “I’m sorry. I bet you actually are really tired and I woke you up… So…” He slowly drew his hand away but Five held on to it.

 _It’s okay._ Five hesitated just for a moment, asking themselves whether they should say it, then asking themselves why they should hesitate in the first place. Maybe because showing weakness, or what they perceived as that, was still not easy, although they had tried working on it. _It was a nightmare, so it’s okay._

“… Yeah. Yeah, right, a nightmare. Still. Sorry about that.”

 _Why can’t you sleep?_ , Five kept going. _Also a nightmare?_

“Uhm, actually, no. Strange, isn’t it? We all get our fair share… But that wasn’t it. Not tonight, at least.” He paused and Five waited, wondering what he really wanted to talk about. Their hand rested on his. “I was thinking… I wanted to show you something, I guess. You haven’t had the chance to spend some time with Baby Sara yet, did you? I mean, since you- you all got her back.”

That was a topic change Five didn’t expect. _No_ , they signed in confusion. Was he gonna get her, now, in the middle of the night? Was he worried she was getting sick? Or- it was probably because Paula mentioned they experimented on her… And knowing the Minister wanted to step into Van Ark’s footsteps, especially in the way he conducted his experiments, as it seemed. Five’s memories hadn’t lost any of their vividness; the pain and exhaustion of running on that treadmill were there as clear as day, if Five chose to pull it up again. And then Sara- Runner 8-

“I just noticed it today”, Sam continued. “When I was looking after her this afternoon and I had to get her ready for her nap.” He chuckled. He chuckled? “She has this … thing she does? Maybe you’ll see it for yourself soon, but, I don’t know, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s so interesting. I hope you’ll see it, really. It’s so cute.”

_What are you even talking about?_

“Hah, okay. I’ll try to explain.” Sam cleared his throat. “So. If you pick her up high enough and you, like, put her head above your shoulder, sort of? So she manages to get her arms around your neck? I mean, she’s still small, but she’s not that small, she can do that obviously. And then she has her hands right at the spot where your hair starts on the back of your neck, you know… and then she starts this-“ He took Five’s hand and turned it around, so their palm was facing upwards. “-I don’t know how to describe- tickling thing? Maybe?", he said and started stroking Five’s palm with his fingertips. 

And something in Five’s chest collapsed, and something in their head shut down the lights and their thoughts went everywhere.

It was okay, as long as they didn’t pull their hand back. Just – they couldn’t pull their hand back.

Not now. Not yet. 

“Like, when you scratch a cat behind its ear, but much much softer. Isn’t that what this is like?”, Sam said quietly.

Five nodded and counted on him hearing the rustling fabric to understand it. They were happy he couldn’t see their face right now.

All of this going on around them – saving people, not getting killed, taking back Abel – had not only caused them to talk less about things, like he said. It had also made it easier for Five to push back these weird feelings they didn’t want to let happen; that stone in their stomach that warmed them up from the inside so much that it made them feel lightheaded, floating, sick at the same time, when they saw Sam smile or heard him say their name or when they accidentally or unaccidentally brushed by each other’s arms. It had piled up so much over all this time that it was easier to pretend it wasn’t there in the first place. And they did, for a while. Having a purpose like saving the world could be beneficial in a lot of ways. 

And now he dug it all up again.

“And she does that but-” Sam stopped to gently take Five’s wrist and pull it upwards, faster than Five could manage to keep up, mentally and emotionally. “-right there.“ And Five’s fingers grazed the heated skin behind his ear, on his neck, where they could feel his pulse and hair and Five pulled back as if they touched a stove.

The darkness lay over them like a blanket. 

Five held their arms close to their chest, their cheeks burning, their lungs on fire from holding their breath. Then they let it out with a shaky exhale. 

“Oh.” Sam sighed. It sounded like he hadn’t breathed for just as long as Five. “Oh, I’m sorry, Five, I’ve been too rash again, haven’t I? I mean- I shouldn’t-“ His sleeping bag rustled and when he spoke again his voice was muffled. “I should just- stop doing things. Anything. I’m so sorry, that wasn’t-” He sighed again and buried his head in his sleeping back.

Five didn’t know what to say. What they should say and what they wanted to say. Or do. This had happened too fast, their brain was still stumbling behind, trying to catch up, making them unable to think things through; that pile of emotions that had amassed over years now rained over them and they couldn’t see and choose the right rational decision. Their heart was here though and it was experienced with this chaos, and it pushed them forwards. 

Five gently pulled down the sleeping back, and their hand was instantly met by Sam’s that had held up the fabric. _Can you show me again?_ , Five asked. _But-_

 _Of course_ , Sam signed back.

Five turned around, facing the wall, and heard him shuffling closer together with his sleeping bag. 

“Paula said Sara probably does it to calm herself down”, Sam said quietly. Five felt his hand brush over their back as he put it up, then his fingertips on their neck. It tickled a bit, and Five felt warm inside again. The warmth was bearable now; enjoyable, actually. “I’m not so sure about that. Have you noticed Sara’s sort of a really chill baby?” He chuckled. “She barely ever cries.”

Five thought about what giving her Runner 8’s name, one of the toughest people Five had ever met, might have brought her, but now wasn’t their time to talk. The darkness of their unconsciousness already started seeping into the corner of their mind. Their body felt heavy. It was nice. Weird and nice.

“I mean… I don’t know what experiments they did to her. In Abel. It could be... a reflex maybe. Obviously, I’m no expert.” He didn’t get lost in his thoughts for long. “Anyway – when she did this today- Hah, this sounds so awfully cheesy. But it’s true! It was so calming. To me, actually. I mean, if this is to calm down anyone it works just as well on the person who holds her. I… For a moment it made me forget it all. It made me feel like it could make all the nightmares go away. It made everything feel alright.” 

He stopped. 

“Don’t you think, Five?”

Five’s breaths had become deep and slow. They didn’t answer.

Just when Five awoke in the morning, after having slept sound and dreamless, and looked at his empty sleeping bag they wondered why Sam had really woken them up last night.

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, I'm sorry the summary and the tags were so cryptic but because this is so short I didn't want to take too many things away from the start^^
> 
> This has been in my drafts for waay too long so I'm happy I finally got it out there! That thing Sara does in this one is inspired by an actual thing my cousin did when she was a baby. As you can see it's still haunting me to this day :D
> 
> Thank you for reading this far and I hope you liked it! ♥


End file.
